How to get people to stay at a startup?
Hi Folks,
Want to understand what makes you stay at a startup vs shop around in other companies or leave after 6months- an year?
Please tell things other than initial compensation because you can always find someone paying more. Assume a market standard here.
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
I'm not sure about the size of the startup. But the smaller it is, the more should employees be onboarded to what the organization is trying to do. The environment should be inclusive as well.
If this happens, people would stay, even if the company struggles, and then further turn it into a success.
On a side note, the entire job ecosystem has been damaged. Most of the folks in IT fields (especially new engineers and new PMs) want to 'work' for money only, and hence the hopping.
The passion required got lost somewhere between 2019 - 2020 with the support of all the bhaiyyas and didis 😂
Now it's all about 'cracking the interview' and CTC jump upto 50 LPA from X.
I'm not saying that working for money is bad, but somewhere in between, there should be passion as well.
Makes sense, Thanks
On a genuine note tho, do people really think having 3 jobs in their 2 years career is a good thing on resume? Seems like such a red flag to me
Is it? Not like all these startups and other firms with growth-at-all cost taking care of their employees that great. In most places, employees are treated like sh*t and given no flexibility apart from a mediocre salary. You ask for passion? Give them ESOPs (not just in value terms but involve them in decision making and empower them), give them good salaries as much as you can and have a great culture, people will stay. The 3 jobs in 2 years is a red flag? Maybe the red flag could be the firms too that the employee made a mistake to join.
Give more money. I'm not even kidding. I had joined a series A funded company as a founding engineer just based on esops and a fucking 30k salary. I curse myself everyday for taking that decision because 30k doesn't mean much when the likelihood of your startup failing is astronomically high
Be friends to employees and hire capable people, we grew from 3 people team to 12 people now all stayed. Also pay wayyy above market and these people will stick to you. CA is same, COO is same almost I pay everyone 70LPA+ per year intern is making 16lpa will be hired as full-stack developer in few weeks. People will stick when you respect and pay them as per their skills
Equity and ownership in the company. Otherwise it'll just be a salary slip at the end of the day motivating them to work and stay longer.
I think is important to understand that good relationships, enough good work, benefits + money make people stay. It is their free will to go for whatever they want to. Why should we even try to control it so much!!!
Also, there some people who should leave as more people leave because of them, could be people in your core team. Keep people who draw people to your org.
Also if you are a leader people will show you their non existent good side all the time. Also, you will only have time to see people through others feedback. Not sure how much one can do here, but it is definitely a blind spot worth working on.
Also market standards is a very broad term, like everyone even worst paymasters use the same term.
You can feel bad about the state of the market, people's attitude and be negetive about all of it or do your best and keep making your systems and process better and hire people who help you do it and be happy with you did the best and are will to become better.
Right, makes sense, especially the 2nd para
Agree about market standards. I mostly inferred paying in line of what the good product companies pay, but not the highest salaries (i honestly believe a lot of people are overpaid for ex 40lpa inhand at 2yoe)
Thank You so much!
yeah I agree. market forces are messed up - people have started paying sde2 rates for sde 1 and sde 3 rate to sde 2s. We can't change the market. This is probably a good way to get people in but always hard to grow and retain. I suggest don't believe in the hiring the top 1% rule too much. They companies with low bar also say they have a high bar. It is just preparation (sport coding, SD prep) that makes people often seem like 1%. It is nothing but a marketing gimmick.
Maybe, define your(with your core team) own qualities of a tier one engineer, build kpis around it and hire for the same. Having everyone have their own different views of a good or great engineer is horrible way of hiring and retaining.
- Esops
- Dont be an asshole to employees
- Have an actually great innovative idea that has social impact
Remember it is your startup and not theirs so everyone is their to make money, like you are. So if you can’t pay enough, be ready for a higher churn.
I wont stay on a Titanic if i can afford cruise ride.lol
Thank You, makes a lot of sense
Ps : I am very okay with people leaving for getting slightly higher money lol - they are any-ways never gonna stick anywhere & lot of them are facing the heat in the current layoff season too. Just hope we are able to filter such candidates out in the hiring process
If you get a significantly higher offer, we would try to match or happily drop you there ourselves, you should definitely take it!
Align them with your vision in the company. Accept the fact that you cannot retain 100 % of your employees. You select a set of 10 - 20 most critical employees and make them real owners of their destiny.
Many companies speak BS about Ownership but ownership is not only about work, but also about getting a piece of the pie for which they have been working real hard. And for those most critical employees, be their friend, not a founder.
Thank You!
Company vision and everything is fine, but invest in them genuinely. People have goals, help them plan and navigate.
They leave for a 30% hike, because in the long term they want to be earning X LPA in Y yrs. Sit with them and help them chart out a plan of how they can do it at your place.
Coach them in technical and non technical topics. Someone wants to shift to product management, help them. They want to leave for an MBA, let them know you'll write a good recommendation letter. Let people be open about their plans, including exits
Fast promotions, good pay, ownership